Rwanda news Web site blocked after paper suspended

New York, June 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Rwandan authorities today to provide information as to why the Web site of newspaper Umuvugizi is inaccessible in the run-up to August presidentialelections. The state-run Rwanda News Agency reported on June 3 that the Web site of Umuvugizi, a leading private paper known for its critical coverage of the government, could not be opened on the networks of the country’s only Internet service providers.

Editor
John Bosco Gasasira, who launchedUmuvugizi online in May after
Rwanda’sMedia
High Councilsuspended
the newspaper of the same name in April for six months, told CPJ he believes
the government is involved in blocking his Web site because of a May 22 story
detailing allegedly lavish travel expenses of President Paul Kagame.

A
week earlier, Media High Council Executive Secretary Patrice Mulama was quoted
by the BBC Kinyarwanda service as saying that the
paper could be “blocked” if it attempted to publish online, according to news
reports. Speaking to CPJ this week, Mulama declined to have any knowledge
of the problem. “I have no idea,” he said, and referred further
inquiries to the Internet
service providers.

The government and all of the country’s three Internet
service providers—MTN Rwanda, a local subsidiary of the South Africa-based MTN Group, Tigo,
a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based Millicom
International Cellular, and RwandaTel, a local subsidiary of
the Libyan government-controlled LAP Green
Networks—have told CPJ that they were not responsible for
blocking the site.

“We call on the authorities to do all in their power to
ensure that Umuvugizi’s Web site is
restored immediately,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes.
“It is essential for Rwanda’s democracy that all voices are able to be heard.”

The
media council’s six-month
suspension of Umuvugizi, along
with the other leading newspaper, Umuseso, ensured the papers would not
appear in local newsstands up to and beyond August presidential elections. The council
is currently seeking a court
order to ban the publications indefinitely on the grounds that their
articles are abusive toward officials, alarm the public, and undermine national
security, according to news reports. Gasasira, who has been assaulted
and prosecuted
for critical coverage
is one of several Rwandan journalists associated with the tabloids who fled
into exile this year, according to CPJ research.